


What the Raven Stole

by hedgerowhag



Category: Vikings (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Mythology, Gen, M/M, References to Norse Religion & Lore, i have no idea how to tag this AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-17
Updated: 2015-12-17
Packaged: 2018-05-07 07:47:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5448824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hedgerowhag/pseuds/hedgerowhag
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Raven grinned, sly and joyous in one expression, and offered the young man a hand as cold and rough as driftwood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What the Raven Stole

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this AU between classes at university, I have no idea what any of it means or what the fuck the plot even is (if anyone can deduce what the fuck is the meaning/plot of all of this I will be much obliged). But I wanted to write something for this fandom for years and could never think of anything decent. I cant actually call this a "mythology" AU but heck it. 
> 
> Alas, enjoy this monstrosity.
> 
> EDIT: i've only just figured that [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6k58yzr5tSE) reminds me of this fic somehow
> 
> Redrafted on 7th March 16

There was once a boy who lived in a house by the coast and like any other boy he had a mother and siblings. When his mother saw the blue of his eyes for the first time she had claimed that the skies of the Lord have been gifted to that fair boy and she called him Athelstan. When the boy grew and learned his words the mother claimed her son's mind to be the finest gem the earth had ever made, enough to tempt any thief should he spy that gift.

Alas, with such wonder of a mind that little boy listened to his mother’s tales of the Lord, of His first creations and their fate. It had been portended that the little boy would go on to serve the Lord, swear his oaths and devote his life to the word. After all, such a gift as the boy's wondrous mind should be devoted to the cause of the One Lord.

However, one day the little boy’s mother sent Athelstan away to play on the beaches while she rested from the sickness that caught her breath. So the boy went wandering on the sand below the cliffs where the little house stood.

As he wandered a raven came from across the sea. The raven called to the Athelstan, “share with me your bread and I shall share with you a tale.”

The little boy was curious about the strange creature and didn’t wish it away, so he obliged. Home Athelstan ran and took the hearties loaf of bread and then back he descended to the beaches where the raven waited on a stray piece of driftwood. Into pieces the boy broke the bread and offered them to the raven who pecked gratefully until sated. Then the bird asked what tale Athelstan wished to hear.

“One of wonderful things!” Cried the boy.

So the raven told the boy a tale of giants and trolls, brave warriors and evil witches. With bright curious eyes and grasping mind the boy listened to the tale as the sun began to set over the land. At last when the tale was finished and the world grew dark the boy asked where lies the land of the giants and the warriors of the raven’s tales.

“The coasts from which I hale those tales do come,” replied the raven.

So Athelstan proclaimed he wished to go to those lands, and would be the raven so kind as to show him the way.

“Upon the day that nothing holds you to these shores I will take you to my lands across the sea.”

“Do you promise?” The boy demanded.

Without reply the raven stared to the boy, as if frowning. Before Athelstan could pester again he heard his mother call from the little house on the cliffs. Athelstan turned from the raven and called back to his mother but when he looked back to the bird to thank for the tale and plead for his promise the raven was gone.

Alas the little boy returned home, to his mother and siblings in the little house on the shore.

 

Three years passed and Athelstan was sent away by his mother to be instructed in letters and numbers in the monastery by the shore. To the Lord the boy’s mother gifted him, for a chance of a comfortable life. Yet Athelstan’s mind was not filled with prayers; instead, the iron grey lapping waves and those uncertain horizons beyond the line of blue stolen the boy's mind, enthralled by myths of warriors and monsters.

One day, whilst free from his daily lessons, Athelstan wandered from the monastery on the shore. Down from the cliffs he went to the beaches where the sea tamely lapped and there he settled on a rock and watched the waters go to and thro.

As the boy’s mind drifted a raven came from across the sea and called to the boy, “share with me a flame to warm my bones and I shall share with you a tale.”

The boy obliged and gathered dry kindling from the sands and began to build a squat fire that soon began to crackle merrily with dancing flames. When Athelstan turned back from his work to the raven he found in the bird's place a man with cold eyes and a cloak of black. The boy cried out in fear but the strange man smiled wolfishly and beckoned him closer in the raven’s voice.

At a distance from the man Athelstan sat and watched him idly warm his hands. Then the cloaked stranger turned to the boy with a smirk and asked what tale would he like to hear.

“One of all that exists,” said the boy.

So the Raven told a tale of the three brave brothers who killed the first creature in the land of ice and fire, who’s skull they crafted into the skyward dome and the body into land and sea.

As the waves began to creep along the shore Athelstan asked the Raven if he will take him across the sea, to the lands of giants and warriors. In reply the Raven gave but a sharp smile.

A bell began to toll from the shore and the boy turned fearfully and listened to that call. When Athelstan looked back to the Raven to hear the reply and to thank for that tale he found himself alone.

 

Three years passed and the boy became a young man, soon to be sworn to the Lord by a life binding oath. And yet, Athelstan was deemed too curious, too deviant and questioning for the life of the faith. So Athelstan was shunned from the monastery to his life in the little house by the shore – empty for years that passed.

Ever did Athelstan’s eyes stray to the horizons of iron grey waves, always curious of what lied beyond. No matter if it was giants and trolls or the halls of brave warriors and kings, it was a strange new land and it was all he ever wanted to see.

Alas, a curious man the boy had grown to be, estranged by what others feared. Maybe it was the reason for why when upon one day when Athelstan descended onto those beaches below the cliffs and found the cold eyed man cloaked in black he greeted him as an old friend.

“Share with me your company and I shall share with you a tale," said the Raven with a knife edge smile.

So the young man invited the Raven for a wander by the coast and talked of the seasons and kings, of the world spinning and old myths. Long they talked as old friends do, of what has come to pass and what has yet to come.

At last as the sun began to set the Raven looked to Athelstan and asked what tale he wished to hear.

“One of horizons beyond the blue sea,” the young man replied.

The Raven grinned, sly and joyous in one expression, and offered the young man a hand as cold and rough as driftwood. Thus, he spoke of the blue mountains of the land to the east, the wind-swept moorlands and the hidden halls of the winter hardened people of the northern fells.

There was no one to call for the boy that night, no voice to pull him from the raven with the iron grey eyes. So when the morning came the sands held no footprint and the little house on the coast remained empty and cold for all the time that came to pass.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to harass me on [ tumblr](http://beeeeebeeee.tumblr.com/)


End file.
